Turnbull and Pyne split on seriousness of French submarine data leak

Malcolm Turnbull has taken a notably tougher line than his defence industry minister, Christopher Pyne, about embarrassing data leaks relating to the Scorpene submarine, flagging Australia’s concerns with the French president, François Hollande, in two separate encounters at the G20.

The prime minister telegraphed publicly the concerns he was in the process of expressing to Hollande on the sidelines of the G20 meeting in Hangzhou on Monday, telling Australian-travelling reporters the leaks were “very very regrettable”.